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Recipe: Yeast Starter for 5 Gallon Homebrew

When I was looking for an easy recipe and explanation of how to make a yeast starter for a 5 gallon homebrew batch, I could not find one that did not involve taking some crazy measurements and requiring equipment I did not own. Therefore, I present to you, an easy, simple, dummy’s guide to making a yeast starter. All you basically need to do is make a small batch of wort with some nutrients for the yeast.

As a side note, if you are homebrewing and you do not make yeast starters, you should strongly consider it. Making a yeast starter does two things:

1. You will know if your yeast is healthy.
2. You will increase the number of yeast you pitch so that your yeast is not overworked and they can produce a better flavor.

There is some debate over the amount of starter yeast need, 1 or 2 liters. This recipe is for a 2 liter starter but it can easily be halved. I usually make 1 liter starters, but I just made a 2 liter starter for the porter we made Saturday and it is chugging away.

I should state that all equipment should be properly sanitized before use just as when you start the regular brewing process.

2 Liter Yeast StarterEquipment Needed:

large pot
funnel
3-4 liter glass bottle (any glass bottle with a small opening will work)
small piece of foil or bunghole plug and airlock that fits your bottle
bleach for sanitizing

Ingredients:

2 liters of water
2 c. DME (a variety that matches your beer or something in the middle. I use amber or light.)
2 tbl. Brewer’s Yeast* (nutritional supplement, not yeast for making beer)
yeast packet, smack pack, or vial

24 to 32 hours before you want to brew:

Take the yeast out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature. If it is a smack pack, follow the instructions on the pack regarding smacking it and letting it swell.

While the yeast is coming to room temperature. Place 2 liters of water, 2 cups of DME, and brewer’s yeast into a large pot or saucepan. Stir the mixture until all the DME is dissolved. Bring mixture to a boil.

Boil the mixture for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, place the lid on the pot and remove from heat.

Allow the wort to cool to room temperature or about 75 degrees F.

Use the funnel to pour the wort and the yeast into the bottle. Swirl the mixture vigorously to aerate the wort. Place the foil (or fancy airlock) over the bottle opening, but not too tight, if using foil. The air will need to escape.**

Keep the starter at about 70-75 degrees (less if it is a lager), but this temperature may vary depending on the yeast strain. Most packets or vials will tell you what the optimal fermentation temperature is for each yeast. It is best if you can keep the starter somewhere you will see it often. We usually keep ours on the kitchen counter and every time we go in the kitchen, we give it a little swirl. This is important because the starter needs to aerate.***

You should see bubbles and movement in the yeast. Some yeast will take a few hours to get going, but you should see some foaming and bubbling after a few hours. I usually make mine in the morning and expect to see some action by dinner time. If nothing happens, your yeast is bad and you need a new batch. This has happened to us once.

If all is well and happy, pitch the yeast into your beer like normal!

Prost!

*Brewer’s Yeast is a nutritional supplement that can be added to bread, cereal, and other things. I think it tastes gross as human food. Yeast love it and our beer yeast needs to eat something. I add this. You can also use honey or sugar.

**Some brewers may be appalled at my use of foil. I always sanitized it and was careful not to mess with it much. We have graduated to an airlock for the starter bottle, but the foil works in a pinch and this is a dummy’s guide.

***Serious brewers use a stir plate and an Erlenmeyer flask but that equipment is expensive, hence our hand swirl method.

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It occurs to me that I know two brewing librarians who are both [excellent] bloggers, and are also women. If I were to start and we locate some more, I could see a Brewing Librarians Round Table meeting at ALA…or at least as part of LSW.